Pace replaces Chronicle’s Alex Russell in the film, which sees him as an American soldier alongside a French foreign aid worker (Skyfall’s Bérénice Marlohe) who are sent to Africa. It sounds like a crusading drama, but factor in that humanity is in the middle of a last stand against a devastating alien invasion. And you have to figure that given the title, it’s not going to go well for either.

Joe Miale, who has plied his trade on music videos, game tie-ins, straight-to-DVD efforts and shorts, is making the jump to feature films with this one, writing the script with Rowan Athale.

Pace will next show up in The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies (due December 12) as Elf King Thranduil and is also part of Stephen Frears’ Lance Armstrong film, now titled Icon, which is now racing through post-production. Marlohe, meanwhile, has a role in Terrence Malick’s untitled 2015 film and worked on rom-com 5 To 7 alongside Glenn Close and Frank Langella.